Thursday, April 1, 2010

Type 4 Reading: Designing Brand Identity

In general, I think the "Designing Brand Identity" book is great material for reference. It has many ideas and concepts that definitely helped me gain another level of understanding. Not only that, but it seems useful for beginners as far as providing the basics for branding.

I thought the small diagram explaining the Typology of Marks & logotypes was interesting. Separate spreads were dedicated to logotype, wordmarks, marks including letterforms, pictorials/characters, and abstract symbols. One thing that I noticed I tend to do personally when going through the motion of making a logo is forming a brandmark that is a single letter(s). The passage reads

"the single letter is frequently used by designers as a distinctive graphical focal point for a brandmark. The letter is always unique and proprietary design that is infused with significant personality and meaning. "

This is basically what I try to convey when I take that route in creating a logo. I think it's time I try and explore some of these other routes, personally. Yet, who knows, maybe it just depends on the client and company it's for. I think different situations definitely call for different solutions!

These are some of the color usage basics that I thought were great things to keep in mind, things that we already know of course, but just a refresher.1. Different viewers experience color differently in various environments2. Ensuring consistency across multiple media is an enormous challenge, and there is no off-the-shelf solution.3. 60% of the decision to buy a product is based on color.4. Use color to build meaning and expand connotation

With the first one, I think Micah and I can use that fact to our advantage. Seeing how we are dealing with multiple messages within a singular form, I think there is a lot of potential with color to either play it up or play it down.